soil in général stony and barren, and their products and commeree of little importance. Advancing towards the line, we meet with the Portuguese island of St. Thomas, in 0° 42′ north, and longitude 8: 30' east. The soil of this island is remarkably fertile; but the climate is hot, and the air foggy and extremely unhealthful. The produce of sugar is prodigious; and the island abounds in domestic animals. Pavoasan, the principal town, and a bishop's see, is on the eastern side of the island. The isle of Ascension, at a vast distance from the continent, is only a barren rock, but it has an excellent harbour, and is frequently visited by the homeward-bound ships from India. St. Helena, in latitude 16° 55′ south, and longitude 5° 41' west, is a small, but delightful and healthful island, inhabited by about 300 English families, who live here sequestered from the world, and are occupied solely with their cattle, their hogs, and their poultry, without any communication with the rest of mankind, except on the arrival of the EastIndia shipping, when every house becomes a tavern. There is only one harbour and landing-place: in every other part the isle is inaccessible. There is also a fort, where the governor resides with a small garrison. Far to the south is the isle of Desolation, so named by Captain Cook, with many others to the east and the west towards the Antarctic circle. Those regions of perpetual frosts, fogs, and storms, in which all vegetation is bound up in unimprovable sterility, must be for ever lost to mankind.† Leaving those scenes of eternal desolation, and proceeding to the north, the large and fertile isle of Madagascar presents an object of greater importance.

The extensive and fertile island of Madagascar is situated between 12 and 25′ north latitude, and between 44° and $1o east longitude. Its length is about 900 British miles, by about 220 of medial breadth. The face of the country is beautiful: the scenery is strikingly grand and picturesque, being diversified with mountains and valleys, precipices, cataracts, and immense forests. A chain of mountains approaching much

Hamil. Moore's Tables of latitude and longitude.

† For a particular description of these remote southern regions, see Cook's last voyage.

Arrowsmith's Map of Africa.

nearer to the eastern than the western coast, runs the whole length of the island. The two highest summits are those of Vigagora in the north, and Botistmeni in the south. From this interior ridge issue numerous rivers and rivulets, running to the east and the west.* The soil and the climate are excellent, and the productions abundant and various. The island abounds in flax, sugar canes, cocoa nuts, bananas, tobacco, indigo, and in fine almost all the productions of the tropical countries. The zoology is equally abundant and various. Horned cattle, buffaloes, and sheep, are extremely plentifu}; but there are no horses, nor any lions, tigers, or elephants. Madagascar yields many of the most valuable minerals, among which are several beds of pure rock chrystal near the bay of Antongil, and in the mountains in the northern part. The French settlement of Fort Dauphin is in the south-eastern extremity of the isle. The villages of the natives are generally built upon eminences, and surrounded by double rows of pallisades, within which is a parapet of earth four feet in height, and sometimes there is also a ditch of about ten feet in breadth, and five or six in depth. This practice of universally fortifying the villages, is strongly indicative of a state of intestine discord and insecurity. The natives are somewhat above the middle stature, and their different complexions indicate their different origin. Some are entirely black, others tawney, but the olive is the most general complexion. According to the account of a late writer, there exists in this island a singular race of men, a nation of dwarfs, who live in a rocky and inaccessible district, and seem to be a distinct and original species.† The whole country is divided among a great number of petty chiefs, who are distinguished by their red caps, such as are worn by the lower sort of Moors. Their authority is only small; but they are generally regarded as the proprietors of the land, and receive a trifling quit rent. The Madagascarians are industrious, bold, and ingenious. Letters are not unknown among them. They have some books in the native

This account of Madagascar is extracted from Rochon's voyage to that island.

Rochan Voyage de Madagascar, p. 162, &c.

languages; but their Ombiasses, or learned men, use the Ara. bic characters. The magicians are numerous, and greatly dreaded by the ignorant people.

The original population of Madagascar is undoubtedly African; and the native blacks are considered as the descendants of the ancients. But it is equally evident that the Arabians have, at an early period, made settlements on the coast, and that their descendants constitute the ruling part of the peo ple. This appears from the prevalence of a corrupt dialect of the Arabian language, the use of the Arabic characters, and some faint traces of the Mahometan religion. The intermix ture of Hindoo traditions, and the division of the people into casts, might also induce a belief that colonies from India had formerly settled on the island. The early migrations, settlements, and intermixtures of the human race, constitute a cus rious, but extremely perplexed subject of history. The whole island of Madagascar is said to have been conquered between three and four centuries ago by the Arabs. From the present state of the country, however, it does not seem that their conquest has been complete. The French have repeatedly made settlements in the island, which they afterwards abandoned. Benyowsky, a Polish adventurer, lately made a bold and singular attempt to unite the natives, and erect in Madagascaran independent monarchy. But being attacked by a detach ment from the isle of Bourbon, he was defeated and slain in the month of May, 1786. His design was grand, and promis ed important consequences. The philanthropist, and the lover of enterprising genius, will regret the failure of a plan, which tended to civilize so important a region, and to raise its bar barous tribes to a rank in the scale of nations.

To the east of Madagascar are the well-known isles of Mauritius and Bourbon, belonging to the French, and the centre of their Oriental commerce and power. Mauritius, known also by the name of Isle de France, is situated in 20o south latitude, and 58° east longitude, about 400 miles from the coast of Madagascar. It is about 140 miles in circuit, and its form approaches to that of a crescent. The interior pre

* Arrowsmith's Map of Africa.

sents several mountains of a considerable height. In the valleys and plains, however, the soil is fertile, producing annually two crops of wheat and Indian corn; and the climate is pleasant and healthful. This island has an excellent harbour, in which a fleet of ships of war may ride with the greatest safety. Mauritius was first possessed by the Dutch, who abandoned it in 1712; and 1734, the French, under M. de Bourdonnois, established their colony.

The isle of Bourbon, lately named L'isle de Reunion, is situated in 21° 52' south latitude, and 55° 35′ east longitude, about 300 miles to the east of Madagascar.* This island is about 150 miles in circuit, and being of nearly a circular form, is somewhat larger than that of Mauritius. The central part rises in high mountains; and at the southern extremity, about a league from the sea, is a remarkable volcano, of difficult access, the eruptions of which are continual. The isle of Bourbon produces sugar canes; and in 1766, M. de Poivre, the governor, introduced the bread-fruit tree, as also the nutmeg and cinnamon. Both Mauritius and Bourbon, especially the latter, are subject to frequent and tremendous hurricanes. These islands, however, are extremely well watered by numerous rivulets descending from the central mountains, and both of them abound in cattle. This, with other advantages, renders them excellent places of rendezvous for shipping; and in time of war the English East-India trade is often greatly annoyed by their privateers and frigates. The island of Bourbon being surrounded with sunken rocks, presents a difficult object of attack; but all its roads and harbours are more or less exposed to the hurricanes. Mauritius, from its excellent port for the reception of a fleet, is therefore the central point from which the French make their offensive operations. As the Red sea has no harbour in which a fleet can be construct ed, and as the countries adjacent to its shores afford no timber fit for that purpose, if the French had remained in posses sion of Egypt, this island would have been of incalculable importance in the system of oriental warfare and commerce. Mauritius would have been the grand point from which the

Arrowsmith's Map-Moore's Tables.

navy of France must have co-operated with her military force in Egypt.

The Comorro islands, situated in about 18° south latitude, nearly in the parallel of the northernmost extremity of Madagascar, and in about 44° east longitude, between that large island and the coast of Mosambique, are pleasant, picturesque, and extremely fertile in rice, sugar, cocoa, oranges, lemons, &c. The inhabitants are Arábians, tributary to the Portuguese.

The isles Pemba, Zenziba, and Monsia, lie opposite to the coast of Zanguebar. Pemba is in 4o, 32′ south latitude, and 40°, 45', cast longitude ;t and said to be near 100 miles in circumference. These islands are peopled chiefly by the Arabians, and governed by their own chiefs, who are tributary to the Portuguese. The island of Socotra is, by some geographers, assigned to Africa, but by others to Asia. As Cape Guardafuy, on the former continent, is the nearest land, geographical propriety must connect it with Africa, while moral circumstances point it out as an Arabian island. It lies in about 11° 50′ north latitude; and appears to be about eighty miles in length, by about twenty in breadth. It is chiefly famed for its aloes, which are esteemed the best in the world. This island seems to have been originally peopled from Arabia, and its present population is entirely Arabian.

The isle of Babelmandel, in the strait of that name, might, with equal propriety be assigned to Africa or Arabia, from each of which it is only about four miles distant. This island, situated in 12° 50', north latitude, and 43°, 50' east longitude, is only a sandy barren spot of earth, scarcely five miles in circumference. But as it commands the entrance of the Red Sea, it has frequently been an object of contest between the Arabians and the Abyssinians; and such it would be among the Europeans, if Egypt should ever become an appendage to any powerful European state.

* Arrowsmith's Map.

† Hamilton Moore's Tables.

In our course round the extensive continent of Africa, innumerable small islands are omitted as too unimportant for a work of this general

nature.